From Hermann Müller 4 October 1876
Lippstadt
Oct. 4. 1876.
My dear Sir
Many thanks for your kind letter of Sept 9. and for the cheque of £7·8 S. for my brother, which I received just now.1
I have many times looked at the male humble bees, but I have never succeeded in observing something like the regular traveling in certain pathways as observed by you.2 But it is to be remarked that the environs of Lippstadt are by no means abounding with humble-bees and therefore little favorable for these observations
In my last letter I have made a statement, regarding the habits of Bombus terrestris, which is to be corrected. As in the meantime I have seen from my notes, B. terrestris also in the Alps forcibly breaks open some flowers in order to gain their honey, for instance those of Silene inflata3
Your book on the Effects of Cross and Self-Fertilisation will be of the highest interest to me.4 It will stop, I hope, such publications as those of Pedicino and Comes of Naples and of Mr. Meehan of Philadelphia.5
As to Trifolium pratense I will remember during next summer what you mentioned about the bees searching for something between the flowers6
Yours | very sincerely | H Müller.
Footnotes
Bibliography
Comes, Orazio. 1875. Continuazione degli studii sulla impollinazione. Rendiconto dell’Accademia delle Scienze Fisiche e Matematiche 14: 64–71.
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Cross and self fertilisation: The effects of cross and self fertilisation in the vegetable kingdom. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1876.
Freeman, Richard Broke. 1968. Charles Darwin on the routes of male humble bees. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) Historical Series 3 (1962–9): 177–89.
Meehan, Thomas. 1875. Are insects any material aid to plants in fertilization? Proceedings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science 24: 243–51.
Pedicino, Nicola Antonio. 1875. Della impollinazione nella Thalia dealbata, Fraso, e del modo di ricercare sperimentalmente i processi di impollinazione. Rendiconto dell’Accademia delle Scienze Fisiche e Matematiche 14: 25–7.
Summary
He has never observed the straight line flight routes in male humble-bees that CD reports.
His last letter was in error: alpine Bombus terrestris does break into some flowers.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-10631
- From
- Heinrich Ludwig Hermann (Hermann) Müller
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Lippstadt
- Source of text
- DAR 171: 307
- Physical description
- ALS 2pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 10631,” accessed on 26 September 2022, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-10631.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 24
